A Bittersweet Ending

photo from mgoblue.com

Kevin Porter won the Hobey Baker Award, college hockey's version of the Heisman Trophy, on Friday night. No doubt he would gladly trade it in for the chance to keep playing, but an ugly 5-4 overtime loss to ND on Thursday ended Michigan's season in terribly disappointing fashion. Porter joins Brendan Morrison (1997) as Michigan's only Hobey winners.

I'll have a season recap up in a week or so, once the disappointment starts to fade a bit.

The college hockey season comes to a close at 7pm Eastern on ESPN Saturday night when Notre Dame tries to become the first no. 4 seed to win the title since the tournament expanded to 16 teams. Boston College plays in its third consecutive championship game, and seeks its third NCAA championship (1949, 2001). ND has never reached the championship game before. Can Cinderella complete the game before the clock strikes midnight?

My hunch is that ND was too focused on Michigan and that they will have a hard time maintaining their focus. I could be wrong about that, though.

UM vs. ND preview

Michigan's hockey team comes into the national semifinal game ranked no. 1 in the polls and the no. 1 overall seed.  They were the CCHA regular season and tournament champions.  They face a Notre Dame squad that finished fourth in the CCHA regular season standings and gave new meaning to the term "offensively challenged," and which received the last at-large bid into the tournament.

Easy Michigan win, right?  Not so fast, my friend.

The teams played twice during the regular season.  In the first game, ND jumped out to a 2-0 lead, and hit at least two posts that could have made it 4-0.  UM tied it up and then scored the game-winner with 20 seconds left.  The following night at the Palace of Auburn Hills, Michigan won a fairly decisive 5-1 victory.

Particularly in that first game, ND was effective dumping the puck into Michigan's zone and coming out with an aggressive forecheck as the Wolverines tried to bring the puck out of their own end.  Logic would suggest that ND will try it again.  The ND gameplan will be to try to frustrate Michigan, force mistakes, and try to capitalize on them, while at the same time trying to contain the high-scoring Michigan offense.

Billy Sauer will probably not be called upon to make 40 saves.  But - and this can be more difficult for a goalie - he may face fewer shots, but better opportunities. 

The other danger for Michigan:  history, which has shown that Michigan has been much more successful as a Frozen Four underdog than as a favorite.

North Dakota and BC face off at 6:00 EDT.  Michigan is scheduled to face off at 9:00,  or 30 minutes after the first game ends.  Both games are on ESPN2.

NOTE:  if you are in the Columbus area, the UM Alumni Club of Central Ohio is having a watch party at Fitzgerald's Sports Tavern, 2640 Bethel Rd.

Go Blue!

Denver Bound!

Billy Sauer was amazing.  12 months ago you'd have been committed if you thought you'd ever get to use that in a sentence.  But despite a never-ending procession of guys to the penalty box, Michigan downed Clarkson 2-0 to advance to the Frozen Four in Denver.

Both Colorado College and Denver were upset in first round games, so there will be no home-ice advantage in Denver.  Michigan will play the winner of the Michigan State - Notre Dame contest tonight.  Aaron Palushaj scored a power play goal late in the first period, and Kevin Porter scored an insurance goal in the first minute of the third.  Sauer had 27 saves and was generally amazing.

Bring on Clarkson!

Kevin Porter had gone without a goal since he scored late in the 10-1 wipeout of UNO, his only goal in quite some time.

The drought is over. His 4 goals paced Michigan to a 5-1 opening round victory over Niagara.

Tomorrow's game against Clarkson starts at 7. Once again, the game will be broadcast on ESPNU.

No. 4 seed Notre Dame knocked off No. 1 seed New Hampshire in the West regional 7-3.

Go Blue!

Reminder - Tourney Starts Tomorrow

UM plays the late game in Albany, which starts about 30 minutes after the early game between St. Cloud and Clarkson. Officially scheduled start time is 7:35. The game will be broadcast on ESPNU for those fortunate enough to have it.

I'll post a recap after the game. Hopefully our Icers can give us some good news.

On another topic, I don't want to steal any of Austin's thunder, but here's a Columbus-specific piece of info to pass on. Most of you have heard that Justin Boren left the football team on Tuesday, and yesterday had some not-so-nice things to say on the way out the door. Anyway, yesterday on 1460 The Fan here in Columbus, Chris Spielman were fairly critical of how Boren left. A relative of Boren's (I thought it was his mom but apparently not) called in to offer her thoughts. You can hear highlights from the show, by going here, clicking on "Thursday," and clicking on "Thursday Fan Flashback." The phone call is about 26:45 in.

Odds and ends: the softball team finished the pre-season schedule at 25-3 and starts Big 10 play at Indiana tomorrow. The baseball team has been plagued by weather issues and spotty play but starts Big 10 play at the new Wilpon Complex against Iowa on Saturday. The wrestling team finished 7th at the NCAAs. There is a huge number of other Michigan teams that are having great seasons and that are ranked in the top 10 of their sports.

To all of them, a hearty Go Blue!

Just checking in..

It's been a long week, but I'm planning on having a very, very extensive post up at the end of the week.

Stay tuned.

No. 1 Overall Seed

photo from MGoBlue.com

I was on an airplane when it ended, but the Wolverines rode a stellar performance by goalie Billy Sauer to defeat Miami 2-1 in the CCHA Tournament Championship game last night at Joe Louis Arena.  The highlights of both UM games at Joe Louis Arena can be seen in the multimedia section at www.mgoblue.com, which can be accessed here.

Aaron Palushaj scored midway through the second period, putting Michigan up 1-0 after two periods, even though Miami was outshooting the Wolverines 21-12 at that point.  Halfway through the final period, Tim Miller made a beautiful move on a face-off in the Miami end, pushing the puck between Miami center Nate Davis' legs, then getting around him to send the puck to Brandon Naurato, who put the puck into the open net.

Miami made it 2-1 with 40 seconds left with the goalie pulled and Michigan shorthanded, but Michigan's defense prevented any further shots, and that's where it ended.

The win gave the Wolverines their first CCHA tournament title since 2004-2005, when they also completed the regular season/tournament double dip.

NCAA Pairings Released

This morning, the NCAA released the NCAA tournament pairings.  Michigan was given the no. 1 overall seed as a result both of its CCHA championship and the fact that all of the other contenders for top seeds struggled over the last week.  North Dakota and Colorado College both lost in the WCHA semis, and New Hampshire lost in the Hockey East semis.

Michigan is the no. 1 seed in the Albany, NY regional, where they will face Niagara, champion of the CHA.  Also in the regional are St. Cloud St., out of the WCHA, and Clarkson, which won the ECAC regular season, but which could not make it out of its conference tournament quarterfinals.  It's about as good a draw as Michigan could have hoped for.

The other no. 1 seeds are New Hampshire, which must play in the West Regional hosted by no. 2 seed Colorado College, North Dakota, which plays in the Midwest Regional hosted by no. 3 seed Wisconsin, and Miami, which plays in the Northeast Regional at Holy Cross in Worcester, just an hour's drive from Boston (so you know it will be a pro-BC crowd there).

The fundamental problem for setting up this tournament is that Michigan and Miami, the top two overall seeds, had no regional sites anywhere near them, and Colorado College and Wisconsin were both hosting regionals on their home ice but by seasons' end, not worthy of no. 1 seeds (and considering Wisconsin's losing record, one wonders how they got a no. 3 seed).  All in all, there doesn't look to be a whole lot to complain about.

The WCHA has six teams in the tournament (North Dakota, St. Cloud, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Colorado College, and Denver), and the CCHA four, including the top two overall seeds (Michigan, Miami, MSU, and Notre Dame, which squeaked into the tournament as the last at-large team).  The ECAC had two (Clarkson and tournament champ Princeton), as did Hockey East (Boston College and New Hampshire).  The CHA (Niagara) and the AHA (Air Force), as usual, placed only their conference champions in the tournament, and received the bottom two seeds. 

But don't feel too smug about that first game, Michigan fans.  Just a couple years ago, top seed Minnesota suffered one of the great upset losses of all time with an opening-round loss to AHA champ Holy Cross.  As they say all the time in the basketball tournament coverage, in a one-and-done scenario, anything can happen.

Michigan opens play on Friday, March 28, at 7:30.  The second round game will be Saturday at 7:00.  Both games will be televised on ESPNU.

Happy Easter, and Go Blue!